Generally, the terminology “CT scanner” is used when relating to a medical system that provides images of successive virtual slices of a region of a body of a patient to be examined, such as a computed tomography (CT) scanner or magnetic resonance (MRI) scanner.
Typically, prior to a computed tomography or CT examination of the patient, a scanning region is defined. As such, the terminology “scanning region” is, hereafter, used for the region of the body of the patient to be examined, or a region of a patient examination table corresponding to that region of the patient body that is to be “scanned” in the course of the examination by successive imaging of successive slices of the patient body.
The scanning region is defined based on a topographic image made in a preliminary phase of the CT examination. Via a computer workstation located remotely from the patient, the targeted scanning region is selected in the topographic image via a suitable position-inputting device, such as a mouse, trackball, or the like.
In order to produce the topographic image, the patient is exposed to an irradiation load from an X-ray source. It would furthermore be desirable to be able to adjust the scanning region with the patient in relative proximity.